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At the Avenues: The World School in Chelsea, attended by Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ daughter, Suri, principal Hamilton Clark said teachers were urged to remain “calm” and “objective.”

His letter Wednesday also shepherded bewildered parents to a Huffington Post article titled “What Do We Tell the Children” in order to help them explain Tuesday’s results.

“Our students brought a great deal of emotion, anxiety and strong feelings into the building with them this morning that we made every effort to acknowledge and respect,” Clark said.

Emotions were also a mess at the Little Red School House in Greenwich Village, glitzy educator to the kids of such stars as supermodel Christy Turlington.

“This week’s election results have hit many of us hard,” read an email to parents. “So, let’s gather and talk about the kids’ feelings and our feelings. Regardless of who you voted for, we as a country have work to do.”

Hoping to ease the mass despondency, the healing message asserted that “love will prevail.”

This letter was sent to the parents of students at Avenues: The World School the day after the election:

November 9, 2016
Dear Avenues Families,
Today was a very challenging day at school after a long and historic election night. Like you, a lot of us were up late last night and many of us here, along with most of the pollsters, were surprised with the election results. Our faculty, including a number who were at the Javits Center and were incredibly disappointed as they learned how the night was going for their candidate, had to put their game face on and come to school this morning ready for their students.
I think you would have been proud of your division heads today. They, along with a number of faculty, did a lot of listening and counseling and urged their teachers to do their best to be calm and objective, to listen to their students worries and concerns and to work to help them understand and support our democratic process. We certainly have constituents on both sides of the electoral spectrum here, but at Avenues we believe in our values of welcome, safety, and respect, and we all worked to model these values to your children today. Our students brought a great deal of emotion, anxiety and strong feelings into the building with them this morning that we made every effort to acknowledge and respect.
Perhaps the best comment I saw today was on Twitter and addressed to all grownups. It read, “Your presence is vital today in the lives of children. Show them what love looks like.” We did our best with that today and know you will continue to at home tonight. Another helpful piece I saw today was on how to counsel your children about the election results. This came from a Huffington Post piece entitled “What Do We Tell The Children” that suggests ways we can properly model the appropriate behavior for our children.
Our teachers and administrators will continue to make themselves available to your children in the days to come and we will all give our best effort to provide them with the safe and stable environment they need.
Sincerely,
Ham Clark